Whoops! Woman Throws Out Rare $200,000 Apple Computer

A woman in Silicon Valley recently threw out an original Apple-1 computer at a recycling center, seemingly unaware the machine, made in 1976, is worth 200 grand. Only about 200 of the computers were manufactured, making this some sort of technological holy grail.

She said that her husband had passed away and that she had decided to clean up their garage. She dropped off a couple boxes of e-waste and drove off without leaving any contact information.

The woman also did not want a receipt, which would certainly have helped her get quite the tax deduction.

CleanBayArea unearthed the computer while rummaging through the boxes a few weeks ago and went on to sell the Apple-1 for a cool $200,000.

The company has a policy dictating that it splits the sale of all the proceeds, so it's trying to track down the woman in order to give her $100,000, which would be a nice consolation prize considering she simply gave it away.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about this story is that there's a person in Silicon Valley not tuned into the fact there's a rare Apple computer floating around. We figured that'd be harder to find than this woman.